


Alys and Mel

by deeisace (elspeth_jones)



Series: Wizarding Wales [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1950s, F/F, Gen, LGBTQ Character, Pregnancy, Squibs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 06:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3437327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elspeth_jones/pseuds/deeisace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On 5th March 1957, in London – To Alys Prewett and Melanie Ford, a son, Anthony Thomas Ford Prewett.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alys and Mel

**Author's Note:**

> I completely messed up all the medical bits, but I think that since it's magic and not science, it should be alright - right?
> 
> Anyway, enjoy a very little insight into Alys' life before she met Sylvie.

**June 1956**

Alys Prewett sat nervously with Mel Ford and Tom Aland, in the waiting room of St. Mungo’s maternity ward. Today had been a hard day, she thought, and now it was made harder still now that she couldn’t hold her girlfriend’s hand while they waited for their donor’s results back. Tom Aland was an actor, mostly in muggle theatre, and a particularly good friend of both women, having lived next door to them since 1954, two years beforehand. Since he luckily looked rather a lot like Mel, with blonde hair and greenish eyes, he had kindly agreed to pose as her brother and Alys’ husband, Tom Prewett, for a few days over the course of the next year, and to be the biological father of the baby that Alys (hopefully) would soon be carrying. Alys and Mel had to lie about Tom’s name and relation to them, because although the wizarding world was rather advanced in medicine, unfortunately the same could not be said for general attitude, and so what openly same-sex couples there were faced massive homophobia (at least for the time being – a group, Alys knew, had begun campaigning – she’d gone to a meeting last week). So, Tom was Alys’ businessman husband for the day. He had fun with it, and despite being gay himself, he embarrassed her at every turn, hitting on her and making lewd comments jokingly, although thankfully (in Alys’ point of view, Mel thought it was hilarious) that had stopped once they arrived, by apparition, in the hospital lobby.

The healer – Healer Andrews? – had returned from wherever he had gone to get the results of Tom’s test. Alys didn’t see why he had had to walk off – all he had needed to do was a little charm that changed colours depending on diagnosis. It wasn’t a widely-known spell (although Alys had performed it on Tom before they got here, to make sure everything was alright, having got the wand movements from a Black cousin who was a trainee Healer doing his paediatrics rotation), so no one would know what the colours actually meant unless they were a fully trained specialist healer – and they weren’t going to tell anyone. “Mr Prewett, the results of the spells are back.” He led Tom and Alys through to his office at the back of the ward, saying to Mel as he passed, “Miss Prewett, we won’t be a minute.”

They arrived, and were ushered into seats. “Okay, Healer.” Tom swallowed nervously, and blinked. “Go on then. What are my results?”

“I’m afraid, Mr Prewett, that you do have a rather low sperm count. Don’t worry, this condition – I hate to say so – it could be said to be just about commonplace in purebloods these days. We have a viable treatment to use. It’s a simple charm, you won’t feel a thing – well, maybe a bit of a tickle, but it won’t hurt. All I’ll be doing is taking some of your viable sperm, so that, in a way, it’s not lost in with all the rest, if you know what I mean.” Tom nodded, looking a little queasy, the same way Alys felt. “It’s a bit like when you spell a potion into a child’s stomach – it’ll just pop up here, no embarrassing disrobing or… fondling… needed.” He shook the little vial he’d found in one of the drawers in his rather expansive desk. “And once we double check everything’s okay with your wife-” He smiled blandly at Alys, who managed a weak upturning of lips herself. “Then we’ve got the go-ahead.”

“Right…” Tom nodded weakly. “Okay. Er, can we do it now? To, er, get it done with?”

“Yup.” He really was a bizarrely cheerful man, grinning, now, at Tom.

Tom glanced at Alys, looking a little out of his depth. She wasn’t any help. “Well, I’ll, er, go and see how Mel’s doing out there. You don’t need me for this bit, do you?”

“Nope!” Tom made a very quiet noise in his throat, at the Healer’s pronouncement, but Alys left him anyway. She thought she might be sick with nerves in a minute – she nearly had a child of her own! Not that she didn’t like her niece and nephews, though of course the twins were hell at times, but she envied her brothers, with their multitudes of spawn, like nothing else, sometimes.

“Alright, hun? How’s it going?” Mel took Alys’ hand as she sat down. Thankfully the only other patient in the waiting room had just gone into the other healer’s office.

“Yeah, it’s good! They didn’t actually check if it was that he was pureblood that caused the… deficiency.” Mel had brewed a potion over the last month, a kind of contraceptive used by lots of very pureblood families who frankly didn’t hold with the idea of entirely cutting off the chances (even temporarily) of having children, in a way similar to the muggle half of Mel’s family, who were quite staunchly Catholic. The potion simply reduced the chances by reducing the male’s sperm count. …Alys couldn’t hold back any longer. She bounced in her seat like a child, still holding Mel’s hand and grinning like a fool. “We’re going to have a baby, Mel! Of our own! Ooh, I can’t wait!”

Mel began to lean in to kiss Alys, but pulled away and hugged her at the last second, to the confusion of her girlfriend, until she spotted Healer Andrews walking towards them with his ever-present smile. “Healer?” He shook the vial in answer, fairly beaming. Tom looked faintly ill, but that was only because the spell cast had felt even worse than a particularly strong disillusionment, given its focus. Not even really noticing Tom at this point, although he had recovered enough to grin, the girls jumped up and down excitedly, squealing. “ _We’re going to have a baby!_ ”

Both men looked indulgent. Tom commented, “I’ll be dragged shopping, but I think this is worth it. We’ve waited so long for this chance.”

 

\--

 

Tom was indeed dragged shopping, but he was nearly as enthusiastic as the girls. Once Alys had been pronounced fertile by Healer Andrews, they (Healer Andrews and a trainee by name of Artie, who Tom thought rather sexy but didn’t chance looking twice at) had performed the procedure, and Alys was confirmed successfully pregnant three weeks later, four months ago.

Yesterday, they (Alys and Tom) had gone for a scan and found that the child was to be a boy. Alys and Mel had decided months ago that if it was a ‘he’, he was going to be named after Tom. So, the child’s name from now on was Anthony Thomas Ford Prewett. Everyone was well pleased, although Alys’ parents weren’t exactly comfortable with methods, and Mel’s didn’t know (and also Tom hadn’t had a boyfriend, or even a shag, for more than six months and five days, but who was counting?).

So, today was for shopping, and fortunately for Alys, whose ankles were just beginning to swell and who had used up her daily allowance of pain potions that morning, they had used catalogues for the rest, and only had to go out to get furniture for the nursery. It had already been painted a bright green, as paint lasted longer than colour-changing charms, and green was a neutral sort of colour. As such, Mel and Tom had agreed that oak furniture was quite appropriate. Alys was quite useless at interior design, so she’d passed preparations to Mel, who’d asked Tom’s opinion. Diagon Alley was the venue of choice, although if they didn’t find what they wanted, they’d venture into Muggle London on another day.

They found exactly the furniture Mel and Tom had had in mind, a beautiful oak set that Tom knew would settle the room perfectly. Tom also found what he was looking for, if temporarily, in the shop assistant. They’d plans for next week, and Alys had laughed at how cheerful Tom was for the rest of the day. He’d fairly a spring in his step, Mel commented, leering at him.

 

\--

 

Time passed, and the child was born a healthy weight and time. Tom settled comfortably into his role as uncle and godfather, spoiling Tony for all he was worth, to the laughing exasperation of his mothers. When Tony was three, Tom had an idea, and Gringott’s approved his will, providing witnesses themselves, as he wanted it to be a surprise for the girls. He would leave his savings to Tony upon death. Alys had cried when Tom told her, and Mel hugged him. Then, when Tony was nearly five, it all went a bit sideways for the little family they’d become, and Mel left.

 

\--

 

**March 1957**

Mel looked down at the son she and Alys, with Tom along to pick them up, had just bought home from St. Mungo’s, after numerous checks on his health. He was tiny, small even for his age of 2 days old. They had worried why, but the Healers hadn’t found anything conclusive, and as he was just in the ‘healthy’ range, they could bring him home to Holborn.

Little Anthony Thomas Ford Prewett was an angel, Mel thought, simply for existing. Mel wondered at him – she and Alys had a child! …Well, Alys and Tom, really, but while he was Anthony’s father, Tom wasn’t his Daddy – Mel was his Mama. It amazed her, and Alys was over the moon.

 

\---

 

**November 1961**

Alys and Mel were worried about their son. He was a lovely little boy, good as can be, but he hadn’t shown a single sign of magic all year, and magical children always showed some accidental magic before they were five years old, as a general rule. Alys didn’t mind – she said that _my son is my son, no matter if he can turn a mouse into a snuffbox and back_. Mel was another matter – she screamed and railed at Alys, that they needed to get him checked, get him _fixed_ , if he wasn’t _normal_ , she said. They did so eventually, Alys being worried for Mel and Tony’s relationship – to be honest, the presence of Tony’s Uncle Tom surely didn’t help much, but to be fair, Alys needed the support of someone, what with Mel becoming more irritable by the day, and their own relationship suffering too.

So, in the middle of November, they took Tony back up to St. Mungo’s, for the first time since his bout of the measles last year. The young healer they saw (‘Call me Artie’) cast a single spell and squinted back and forth between Tony and his own wand, the tip of which had lit a bright blue-ish purple, pursing his lips.

He sat the parents down (though he thought them sisters-in-law with the husband away on business – St. Mungo’s didn’t tend to check it’s records, but better safe than sorry). “I’m afraid, Mrs Prewett, that your son, unfortunately, is a squib. He is what is termed as a second class squib, so you might have to prepare yourself for the fact that he may never hold his own wand. But, I’ve got some leaflets here, if you wanted to –”

“No!” Mel had stood up. “ _No!_ My son, _my son_ , is not going to be some, some _freak of nature!_ ”

Tony began to cry, and Alys let out a scandalised “Mel!” then turned, wide-eyed, to look at the healer in horror, clearly waiting for the homophobic vitriol spewed by so many of the Wizarding public.

“It’s alright, Miss Prewett. After all, my boyfriend wouldn’t be so happy with me at all, if he found out I’d told you all the things we’ve had said to us.” He smiled at her briefly. “Now, Miss…”

“Ford,” Alys chipped in, as Mel still seemed to be seething, glaring fiercely at Healer Artie.

“Miss Ford, I think it might be better if you tried to calm down a little, just listened –”

“Calm down‽ I’ve just been told my son is a freak! No, I am not going to calm down!” Mel had sat back down by now, but she was no less angry. “We come here for help, and you tell us –”

“Mel, I think maybe it might be easier if you just left, and I can explain later?” Alys said quietly.

“Well!” Mel stormed from the room, muttering what sounded like foul words as she left, startling some of the mothers in the waiting room as she passed through the silencing charm laid over the doorway.

“…Healer, you were saying about the leaflets?” Alys held Tony in her lap, comforting both him and herself, trying to postpone her crying. Artie gave her a tissue. “Thanks,” she sniffed.

“Er, yes. That, er, might have been the wrong choice of words… Right, so, if we read through them together, and we can explain it all to –Tony, and then you can take all these home with you, okay?”

Among the leaflets, there are a few Ministry-sanctioned ones, using words like ‘unfortunate’, ‘chagrin’ and ‘affliction’, there was also a recent article by a world-renowned Healer and Charms Mistress, and a prospectus for Sylvia Malfoy’s School for Young Squibs, that professed to teach them what magic they could perform. Alys was heartened, and left feeling a little better about her son’s future.

 

\---

 

In January, Mel left, after two months of shouting matches with Alys and scathing looks at Tony.

Alys had called her a hypocrite once, since her mother was a Muggleborn and father not far off, to which Mel had replied “Don’t you bring my mother into this!” in acid tones, continuing to call Tony names. Thankfully he was being babysat by Tom at the time (and Tom’s new boyfriend, who just happened to be Healer Artie), and didn’t need to hear the latest stream of vitriol.

 

\---

 

As it turned out, Tony could turn a mouse into a snuffbox and back. He was quite gifted in Transfiguration, in fact, and was an Animagus by his 5th year at Sylvie’s, staying on as an apprentice to the Transfig. Master there, gaining his NEWT and Mastery, and also completing A-Levels in Physics and Maths. 

**Author's Note:**

> There'll be a bit of a wait, now, while I write up the 'Marauder's Era' bit.


End file.
